New Delhi: BlackBerry on Thursday launched its much-awaited Q10 smartphone in the country at a premium price of Rs 44,990 targetting high-end customers. It will be available for sale in 20 cities across 1,000 stores from Friday.

"BlackBerry Q10 is a premium phone for power users who have to handle multiple calls, send out numerous mail and look for high quality. The phone is priced at Rs 44,990," Blackberry Managing Director for India, Sunil Lalvani said while unveiling the product.

The new BlackBerry phone has both touch-screen and QWERTY keypad which is different from other high-end smartphones that are only touch-screen.

"We have done a global survey. There are many high end people who still prefer QWERTY keypad for typing. They don't enjoy typing on glass and this phone is for that class," Lalvani said.

BLACKBERRY Q10 SMARTPHONE

Price

Rs 44,990

Processor

1.5 GHz dual-core chipset

Rear camera

8 megapixel auto-focus enable

Front camera

2 megapixel

Body

Carbon fibre

Keypad

QWERTY

The BlackBerry Q10 has dual-core chipset with processing speed of 1.5 gigahertz, 8 megapixel auto-focus enable rear camera and 2 megapixel front camera that can be used for video calling. The phone supports 3G services and also has technology to support 4G services while a person is on international roaming on certain networks.

Lalvani added that the phone is built on carbon fibre instead of plastic and every Q10 device sold by company will have different design on its back cover. The phone can be purchased at monthly installment scheme spread across 9 months which is applicable on other devices built on its BB 10 platform.

For corporate customers, BlackBerry Q10 buyers will get additional benefit of 1 year subscription of enterprise mobility management services for free. These services are meant for corporate customers of BlackBerry who use its servers for business communications.